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Q&A Why does the file command fail to recognize non-text files as such?

POSIX defines Text file as A file that contains characters organized into zero or more lines. The lines do not contain NUL characters and none can exceed {LINE_MAX} bytes in length, inclu...

2 answers · posted 3y ago by Quasímodo‭ · last activity 3y ago by LawrenceC‭

Question posix file

#3: Post edited by

Quasímodo‭ · 2021-05-27T19:57:48Z (over 3 years ago)
Octal 200 cannot be the first byte of a character

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[POSIX defines][1]
- Text file as
> A file that contains **characters** organized into zero or more lines. The
lines do not contain NUL characters and none can exceed {LINE_MAX} bytes in
length, including the \<newline\> character.
- Line as
> A sequence of zero or more non- \<newline\> characters plus a terminating
\<newline\> character.
- Character as
> A sequence of one or more bytes representing a single graphic symbol or
control code.
Consider then six files, each with two bytes,
created with these Printf commands (using octals):
printf "\101\012" > file1 #A<newline>
printf "\010\012" > file2 #<backspace><newline>
printf "\101\101" > file3 #AA
printf "\200\012" > file4
printf "\200\200" > file5
printf "\000\012" > file6 #<null><newline>
Now, in the [UTF-8 encoding][5], the octal 012 (0x0A) is the newline character, 101 (0x41) is the graphic
~~symbol `A`, 010 (0x08) is the backspace control character and 200 (0x80) is a continuation byte.~~
~~Hence, I would regard files 1 and 2 as text files, but the remaining as non-text files, because files 3, 4 and 5 are not newline terminated and file 6 contains a null byte.~~
However, the `file` command does not seem to completely agree
with me; it lists files 3, 4 and 5 as text files,
$ file --mime-type file*
file1: text/plain
file2: text/plain
file3: text/plain
file4: text/plain
file5: text/plain
file6: application/octet-stream
Why does the `file` command fail to identify files 3, 4 and 5 as non-text files
~~(I'm assuming it can't possibly be a bug), or else what did I incorrectly~~
understand?
[1]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html
[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Codepage_layout

[POSIX defines][1]
- Text file as
> A file that contains **characters** organized into zero or more lines. The
lines do not contain NUL characters and none can exceed {LINE_MAX} bytes in
length, including the \<newline\> character.
- Line as
> A sequence of zero or more non- \<newline\> characters plus a terminating
\<newline\> character.
- Character as
> A sequence of one or more bytes representing a single graphic symbol or
control code.
Consider then six files, each with two bytes,
created with these Printf commands (using octals):
printf "\101\012" > file1 #A<newline>
printf "\010\012" > file2 #<backspace><newline>
printf "\101\101" > file3 #AA
printf "\200\012" > file4
printf "\200\200" > file5
printf "\000\012" > file6 #<null><newline>
Now, in the [UTF-8 encoding][5], the octal 012 (0x0A) is the newline character, 101 (0x41) is the graphic
symbol `A`, 010 (0x08) is the backspace control character and 200 (0x80) is a continuation byte that never occurs as the first byte of a multi-byte sequence, so it does not form a valid character.
Hence, I would regard files 1 and 2 as text files, but the remaining as non-text files, because file 3 is not newline terminated, files 4 and 5 have an invalid character and file 6 contains a null byte.
However, the `file` command does not seem to completely agree
with me; it lists files 3, 4 and 5 as text files,
$ file --mime-type file*
file1: text/plain
file2: text/plain
file3: text/plain
file4: text/plain
file5: text/plain
file6: application/octet-stream
Why does the `file` command fail to identify files 3, 4 and 5 as non-text files
(I'm assuming it can't possibly be a bug) even though I use `en_US.UTF-8` as my locale, or else what did I incorrectly
understand?
[1]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html
[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Codepage_layout

#2: Post edited by

Quasímodo‭ · 2021-05-27T19:46:51Z (over 3 years ago)
Fix link that pointed to a irrelevant section; address Moshi's comment explaining why I think files 3 to 6 are non-text files.

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[POSIX defines][1]
- Text file as
> A file that contains **characters** organized into zero or more lines. The
lines do not contain NUL characters and none can exceed {LINE_MAX} bytes in
length, including the \<newline\> character.
- Line as
> A sequence of zero or more non- \<newline\> characters plus a terminating
\<newline\> character.
- Character as
> A sequence of one or more bytes representing a single graphic symbol or
control code.
Consider then six files, each with two bytes,
created with these Printf commands (using octals):
~~printf "\101\012" > file1~~
~~printf "\010\012" > file2~~
~~printf "\101\101" > file3~~
printf "\200\012" > file4
printf "\200\200" > file5
~~printf "\000\012" > file6~~
Now, in the [UTF-8 encoding][5], the octal 012 (0x0A) is the newline character, 101 (0x41) is the graphic
symbol `A`, 010 (0x08) is the backspace control character and 200 (0x80) is not a valid
~~character.~~
Hence, I would regard files 1 and 2 as text files, while the remaining ones as
non-text files. However, the `file` command does not seem to completely agree
with me; it lists files 3, 4 and 5 as text files,
$ file --mime-type file*
file1: text/plain
file2: text/plain
file3: text/plain
file4: text/plain
file5: text/plain
file6: application/octet-stream
Why does the `file` command fail to identify files 3, 4 and 5 as non-text files
(I'm assuming it can't possibly be a bug), or else what did I incorrectly
understand?
~~[1]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html#tag_03_92~~
[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Codepage_layout

[POSIX defines][1]
- Text file as
> A file that contains **characters** organized into zero or more lines. The
lines do not contain NUL characters and none can exceed {LINE_MAX} bytes in
length, including the \<newline\> character.
- Line as
> A sequence of zero or more non- \<newline\> characters plus a terminating
\<newline\> character.
- Character as
> A sequence of one or more bytes representing a single graphic symbol or
control code.
Consider then six files, each with two bytes,
created with these Printf commands (using octals):
printf "\101\012" > file1 #A<newline>
printf "\010\012" > file2 #<backspace><newline>
printf "\101\101" > file3 #AA
printf "\200\012" > file4
printf "\200\200" > file5
printf "\000\012" > file6 #<null><newline>
Now, in the [UTF-8 encoding][5], the octal 012 (0x0A) is the newline character, 101 (0x41) is the graphic
symbol `A`, 010 (0x08) is the backspace control character and 200 (0x80) is a continuation byte.
Hence, I would regard files 1 and 2 as text files, but the remaining as non-text files, because files 3, 4 and 5 are not newline terminated and file 6 contains a null byte.
However, the `file` command does not seem to completely agree
with me; it lists files 3, 4 and 5 as text files,
$ file --mime-type file*
file1: text/plain
file2: text/plain
file3: text/plain
file4: text/plain
file5: text/plain
file6: application/octet-stream
Why does the `file` command fail to identify files 3, 4 and 5 as non-text files
(I'm assuming it can't possibly be a bug), or else what did I incorrectly
understand?
[1]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html
[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Codepage_layout

#1: Initial revision by

Quasímodo‭ · 2021-05-27T18:34:13Z (over 3 years ago)

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Why does the file command fail to recognize non-text files as such?

[POSIX defines][1]

- Text file as

  > A file that contains **characters** organized into zero or more lines. The
  lines do not contain NUL characters and none can exceed {LINE_MAX} bytes in
  length, including the \<newline\> character.

- Line as

  > A sequence of zero or more non- \<newline\> characters plus a terminating
  \<newline\> character.

- Character as

  > A sequence of one or more bytes representing a single graphic symbol or
  control code.

Consider then six files, each with two bytes,
created with these Printf commands (using octals):

    printf "\101\012" > file1
    printf "\010\012" > file2
    printf "\101\101" > file3
    printf "\200\012" > file4
    printf "\200\200" > file5
    printf "\000\012" > file6

Now, in the [UTF-8 encoding][5], the octal 012 (0x0A) is the newline character, 101 (0x41) is the graphic
symbol `A`, 010 (0x08) is the backspace control character and 200 (0x80) is not a valid
character. 

Hence, I would regard files 1 and 2 as text files, while the remaining ones as
non-text files. However, the `file` command does not seem to completely agree
with me; it lists files 3, 4 and 5 as text files,

    $ file --mime-type file*
    file1: text/plain
    file2: text/plain
    file3: text/plain
    file4: text/plain
    file5: text/plain
    file6: application/octet-stream

Why does the `file` command fail to identify files 3, 4 and 5 as non-text files
(I'm assuming it can't possibly be a bug), or else what did I incorrectly
understand?

[1]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html#tag_03_92
[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8#Codepage_layout

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